Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Book and The Movie

 I finished reading the book Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess by Fred Waitzkin last weekend. I also watched the movie with the same name based on this book written and directed by Steven Zaillian. While the book was first published in 1988, the movie was released in 1993 in the United Kingdom with the name Innocent Moves. A chess father's view of his chess prodigy son came nicely in this. Along with that also came out how impactful Bobby Fischer was in the world of chess and in particular American chess.



As I and my son Ahyan Zaman have been playing chess tournaments together for many years, I could see Fred in me and Josh in Ahyan, albeit to a lesser extent. I know when we made the choice not to focus too much on just chess for Ahyan, as he is also in piano, drama and other activities. Both the book and the movie is good although I would place the book a little better despite that movie was nominated for Best Cinematography in the 66th Academy Awards.


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